The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-06-22

QUEEN vICTORIA'S JUBILEE.
The London 'sStandnrd On queen
KapiOIani's Visit to England.

The following article appears in the
editorial columns of the London "Stand-
ard" of May 9th:
Among the many interesting guests who
are on their way to our shores. the one
who will perhaps excite the greatest
amount of kindly curiosity is Kapiolani,
Queen OF the Sandwich Islands Resolved
to be present at the Queens Jubilee, Her
Majesty had to set out on her journey
long before the other representatives of
Royalty had made any preparation for
their visit to Windsor. Between Hawaii
and San Francisco there lies many league
of ocean, and before the Polynesian Queen
could take snip at New York to pass the
Atlantic, she had to cross the American
Continent. However, the worst part of
her journey is over. At present she is in
Washington, where she has been hospita-
bly, entertained by President Cleveland
and his fellow citizens, the President -hav-
ing given State dinner in her honor on
Friday last. Within few days she will
arrive in London, in good time for the
celebration she has travelled so far to at
ICnu. 4hlS BAdCSAOA dCS vi courtesy VIII
not fail to be appreciated by those to
whom it is intended to do honor. Bymid-
summer many Princes and some Kings
will be here. But few of them will have
come so far, and none of them under cir
cumstances SO arduOus as the lady who
has crossed land and sea to pay her re-
spects to the island Queen whose fame is
rapidly becoming enwrapt among the his
torical myths of Hawaii. This, it must be
remembered, is Her Majesty's first venture
from home. Like all her race, she loves
her native isles with an almost supersti-
tiOus affection. No slight obstacles had
to be overcome before the Consort of King
Kalakaua could see her way to leaving
home and country for so long period.
What makes the Hawaiian Queens visit
the more remarkable is that though her
husband speaks English with great fuency,
she understands no tongue save her native
language. The fact will, however, in no
way interfere with the warmth of her well
come. In London she will find many
friends, apart from her official hosts. Of
late years Honolulu has been the halfway
house for vOyagers from New Zealand to
San Francisco, and more than one wealthy
yachtsman has visited the little Kingdom
in the "dark purple sphere of sea-" around
which never-dying romance circles. Less
than five years ago King Kalakaua visited
England and other European countries,
and left a favorable impression behind
him. Since his return the results of his
travels are apparent in the rapid advance
which Hawaii is making in the treaties
which she is forming with other Powers"
and in the efforts which are being made to
promote the moral and material interests
of the too rapidly decreasing population of
the Islands which Cook discovered little
more than century ago.
1t is a striking and not altogether salts
factory fact that within that brief period
the islands have been transformed. The
once teeming native race have dwindled
down 30 ferty thousand, for though the
census shows a constantly increasing num-
Der Of people, it is due entirely to the for
eigners VINO have settled in the group. In
a century all the male members of the
Royal House of Kamehameha have died.
and the present Sovereign owes his Access
sion to the throne solely to the fact that
mis- mother was niece of the warrior who
reduced all the island chiefs under, his
seepter. Even the tall aristocracy of the
group, so distinguished by their dignified
bearing and fine physique from the hum
bier class of the people, are disappearing,
and the general chfldlessness of the noble
families bodies i'll for the continuation of
the kingIy race. But if some of the
changes have been melancholy since the
fiav when Cook, on his arrival, was mis-
taken for the long-lost God Rono, and his
,hips for the +" outer-rlggerless canoes"
Thich the ancient soothsayer prophesied
.hould some day appear, there have been
,ther revolutions in the Sandwich Islands
more pleasing 10 contemplate. Paganism
! now extinct. NominaIly, at least, the
,ntire group is Christianized, and village
chool is as familiar feature as it is in
england. Crime is at as low an ebb as in
as European country. The revenue is
Increasing, and the Sovereign who now
ules the islands is beginning to exercise |
aat influence over Samoa, Tonga and the |
Their Polynesian Kingdoms to which the